Saturday, 20 December 2014

"The local police force, Dumfries and Galloway, they were most concerned at the SWARMS of Americans, fiddling with bodies, and shall we say tampering with those things that the police were carefully checking themselves.

I'm not pretending that they said they were from the FBI or the CIA - they were just Americans, who seemed to have arrived extremely quickly, on the scene..." - Tam Dalyell MP

The Maltese Double Cross discusses evidence and witnesses that would eventually figure at the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial in 2000:

• The Mebo MST-13 timer fragment, which Thomas Thurman of the FBI's forensic laboratory said that he identified on June 15, 1990;

• Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, former prime minister of Iran, discusses the idea that Iran took revenge for the shootdown by the USS Vincennes of Iran Air Flight 655 in July 1988.

• Solicitor, Alastair Logan, criticises DERA's Dr Thomas Hayes for the forensic evidence that was used to convict the Maguire Seven;

• Former CIA operative, Oswald LeWinter says the appointment of 'Libyan dirty tricks expert', Vincent Cannistraro, to head the CIA's team investigating Lockerbie 'would be funny, if it were not an obscenity';

• Best-selling author, David Yallop, reviews the available evidence and looks at who might have been responsible for the Lockerbie bombing.

The documentary disputes the conclusion reached by the official investigation into the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, instead advancing the theory that the bomb was introduced onto the aircraft by an unwitting drug mule, Khaled Jafaar, in what the filmmaker claims is a CIA-protected suitcase.

Directed by Allan Francovich

The film had been the focus of active attempts at suppression. Francovich died of an apparent heart attack while going through U.S. customs in Houston, with documents in his possession that would exonerate whistleblower Lester Coleman and implicate the Reagan and Bush administrations and the CIA in a number of unsavory and illegal activities.

Q7. Mr. Dalyell : To ask the Prime Minister if he will make a statement on representations from Arab countries about sanctions against Libya.

The Prime Minister : We have had various approaches from Arab countries about sanctions against Libya. We and the Arab League share the same objective--to see a satisfactory outcome to the Lockerbie problem. This, as the Arab League well knows, will require Libya's full compliance with United Nations Security Council resolution 731.

Mr. Dalyell :In the light of my two letters to the Prime Minister on this subject, will he consider putting in the Library a response to the cover story of Time magazine--not exactly a publication of the left--which challenges the whole basis of the Anglo-American position? Will the right hon. Gentleman also consider approaching Spain on the legal proceedings relating to Monzer al Kassar, a Syrian drugs and arms dealer?

The Prime Minister : I saw the article in Time magazine ; I examined it and sought advice on it. The theories about involvement and links with drugs are not new. They were thoroughly examined by the police during the investigation and were discounted at that stage, at the conclusion of the investigation. No evidence has yet been found to link the Syrian, al Kassar, to Lockerbie--but I shall, of course, examine the matter again in view of the hon. Gentleman's representations. Mr. Wilkinson : Can my right hon. Friend enlighten the House about any dealings between Government officials and the Government of Libya over links between the Libyan regime and the Irish Republican Army? Has the IRA received any supplies from Libya recently? Have the Libyan authorities given assurances to the Government that they will not continue to supply the IRA? The Prime Minister : The Libyans have provided some information to the Government about their relationships with the IRA ; they did so in Geneva on 9 June. The preliminary assessment of that information suggests that although in places it was incomplete and unsatisfactory, it contains some positive elements which may well prove useful. One positive development is the fact that the Libyans have indicated to us that they wish to cease providing assistance to the IRA. We are not convinced that that is yet the case.